Kevin Wilson
The Shakerag Lecture Series sponsors a presentation by a special visiting artist for each of the two Shakerag Workshop sessions, June 14-20 and June 21-27. The first Shakerag Lecturer is author Kevin Wilson. The lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 17, in McCrory Hall for the Performing Arts on the campus of St. Andrew's-Sewanee School.
A reception will follow in the St. Andrew's-Sewanee Gallery honoring the Shakerag Lecturer and the Shakerag faculty artists. This event is free and open to the public.
Mr. Wilson is the author of the collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial, 2009), which received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Award. He is also the author of the novel, The Family Fang (Ecco, 2011).
The Family Fang has been published in more than 15 countries, was a New York Times bestseller, and was listed as one of the best 10 books of the year by Time magazine, People, Esquire and Booklist. It is currently in production as a feature film.
Mr. Wilson’s fiction has appeared in Tin House, One Story, Cincinnati Review, American Short Fiction, Oxford American, Ploughshares (one of 10 fiction writers in the Emerging Writers Issue) and elsewhere, and has appeared in four volumes of the New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best anthology as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. His story “The Choir Director Affair” was adapted for the stage by Heiko Kalmbach and performed at the Theaterhaus Jena in Germany. Mr. Wilson has also written nonfiction for the New York Times Magazine, as well as the introduction to the Penguin Classics reprint of Shirley Jackson’s The Bird’s Nest.
Mr. Wilson has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the KHN Center for the Arts. He lives in Sewanee with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch. He is an assistant professor in the English Department at the University of the South.
Shakerag faculty members give brief presentations about their work on other weekday evenings at 7:15 p.m. in McCrory Hall, and these lectures are open to the public. The schedule of faculty talks during the first Shakerag session is as follows:
Monday, June 15 Tilleke Schwarz, Embroidery: Texts and Flowers
Bernadette Curran, Clay: When Animals Go Tactile
Marlene True, Jewelry: The Art of Tin Jewelry Making
Tuesday, June 16 Jill Solomon, Clay: Saggar Firing Techniques
Charllotte Kwon, Fiber: Natural Dyeing
Daniel Essig, Book Arts: The Altered Mica Book
Thursday, June 18 Ken Kewley, Painting: Figures in a Landscape
Diane Willow, Digital Arts: Site - Sound
Each June since 2004, St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School has welcomed artists to Shakerag Workshops for two one-week sessions of studio classes and lectures. Instructors from around the nation offer classes in basketry, book arts, clay, digital arts, felting, fiber, mixed media and watercolor. For more information about the Shakerag Workshops classes or evening programs, please visit www.shakerag.org or contact director Claire Reishman at 931.598-5651, ext. 3165.